iFi ZEN CAN | Desktop Headphone Amplifier
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Our Take The iFi ZEN CAN is a powerful, versatile headphone amp and a great value for the money. Whether you use it standalone or combine it with something like the ZEN DAC or ZEN Blue, it provides plenty of power for the biggest, hungriest headphones, and has a low noise floor while driving sensitive IEMs. While the ZEN CAN probably won’t bring you inner peace, it is a great headphone amp to get you started on the path of high-end audio. Read the full review.. |
52x more power. Pump up the volume.
Laptops and smartphones have a really low power output of <1.0v. On a good set of headphones you’re always running out of juice. You never get to really hear what they can do.
Use a laptop, phone or DAC to feed your music to the ZEN CAN and connect your headphones. Pumping out 52x more power, now you’ll hear what you have been missing.
Balanced to thrill
The ZEN CAN has trickle-down Class A discrete balanced circuitry from iFi audio’s $1,699 flagship Pro iCAN. With 15.1v @300 Ohms on tap, it has serious power that will make even difficult-to-drive headphones thump to the beat.
- Class A discrete output buffer from the flagship Pro iCAN using Op-Amp (OV2637A)
- FET input avoids loading volume control – low distortion/noise
- Low impedance feedback circuit enhances circuit performance with no resistor noise
- Output amplifier gain of four steps in +6dB perfect for headphone matching
Puts you at the venue. Not other way round.
Audio recordings are made for speakers and when played back on headphones, the sound is always driving you nuts by being only in your head.
Our 3D special sound circuit solves this:
- Stereo image that is truly out of your head, in front with height, width & depth
- Without colouration or loss of resolution
- All analogue circuitry (i.e. without costly and complex digital signal manipulation)
Satisfies all listeners.
Ace of XBass
Behind XBass is our active EQ circuit which meets a common gripe with headphones head-on, a lack of bass.
Open-back headphones in particular, let all frequencies (especially those precious bass frequencies that the drivers generate so little of) leak freely out of the back instead of trapping and redirecting them back to your ears.
XBass equalization is a much more elegant solution to bass correction than seen elsewhere. It consists of active and passive components and its frequency response curve corrects their low-end response problems with precision.
Packed with premium goodness
Underpinning the Balanced and Active EQ circuitry are:
- Panasonic ECPU capacitors
- TDK C0G (Class 1) ceramic capacitors
- iFi/AMR ‘OV’ ‘Operationsverstärker’ series op-amps
- MELF resistors
- Texas Instruments low-noise ICs
- muRata capacitors and
- Tokyo Cosmos Electric Co. (TOCOS) multi-track potentiometer, with exceptional channel matching even at low volume
A fully discrete and balanced amplifier audio circuit. The full symmetric dual-mono headphone amplifier with gold-plated 4.4mm balanced connection. This exquisitely engineered design is more expensive but lowers the noise floor to a whisper-quiet 120dB.
Check out the tech notes for the details.
Class A Discrete is a circuit that has come straight out of the iFi’s flagship headphone amplifier, the Pro iCAN, which at £1,699 is 11 times the price of the ZEN CAN.
This OV series operational amplifier is another example of a top-notch component used to get extremely low noise, low distortion (0.0001%) and wide bandwidth.
TDK C0G (Class 1 ceramic) capacitors offer high stability and low losses for resonant circuit applications. They are pricey but are a perfect addition to our products.
Sonically superior – richer, deeper. The XBass® analogue bass correction system corrects for the missing headphone/speaker bass response.
An ‘Out of Head’ listening experience. Our 3D Holographic® dual-analogue matrices place the artist with you in the room, not inside your head.
Specs
| Input Voltage | DC 5V/2.5A AC 100 -240V, 50/60Hz (iFi iPower included) | |
| Max Output | Balanced | >15.1V/385 mW (@ 600 Ohm) >6.0V/1150 mW (@ 32 Ohm) |
| S-E | >7.6V/98 mW (@ 600 Ohm) >7.2V/1600 mW (@ 32 Ohm) | |
| THD & N | Balanced | <0.006% (@ 360 mW/2.4V 16 Ohm) |
| S-E | <0.005% (@ 100 mW/1.27V 16 Ohm) | |
| SNR | Balanced | >120dBA (@ 15.2V) |
| S-E | >118dBA (@ 7.6V) | |
| Max. Input | Balanced | 7.4V RMS |
| RCA | 3.8V RMS | |
| 3.5mm | 1.92V RMS | |
| Gain | 0dB, 6dB, 12dB and 18dB | |
| Frequency Response | 20Hz - 20kHz (-3dB) | |
| Power consumption | No Signal | ~5W |
| Max Signal | ~13W | |
| Power consumption | < 1.5W via USB power OR 5v DC (power supply not included) | |
| Dimensions | 158 x117 x35 mm 6.2" x 4.6" x 1.4" | |
| Net weight | 515g (1.14 Ibs) | |
| Warranty period | 12 months |
In the Box
- ZEN CAN
- Power Supply
- 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter
- User Manual
